Prostate cancer survivor becomes early detection advocate
A recommended cancer screening was far from routine for an Ohio State prostate cancer patient who credits the procedure for his early diagnosis.
Dennis Jacob had become used to seeing his PSA numbers rise slightly each year during scheduled checkups. During one visit, though, his tests showed a cause for more concern.
“I had no evidence, no symptoms, nothing to signal that there was anything wrong,” Jacob says. “One day, they went up a lot and my family physician recommended that I go visit a urologist to get his opinion on it.”
The change led Jacob’s doctor to schedule a biopsy, which resulted in a prostate cancer diagnosis.
“Frankly, I panicked. When you hear the words you have cancer, everything starts to go in motion, sometimes very fast motion, something very slow motion,” he says. “I had gone through this exercise of convincing myself, ‘You're fine, everything's okay,’ and then it wasn't.”
Click here to learn more about prostate cancer, including risks, symptoms and treatment options at The Ohio State University.
After the initial shock of the diagnosis subsided, Jacob began researching care options in central Ohio. His efforts led him to choose The James at Ohio State.
“I chose The James because of the level of comfort that I had with the staff, and the reputation obviously, of the facilities,” he says. “Everything seemed to click.”
After making his choice, Jacob went to work meeting with his new care team to plan treatment with the OSUCCC – James comprehensive prostate cancer specialists.
“I spent the better part of a day meeting with specialists from medical oncology, radiation oncology and surgical urology,” Jacob says. “Each of those specialists reviewed my results and gave me their opinions of the pros and cons for each treatment option, and that helped me focus in on what was going to be the eventual treatment path that I chose.”
Jacob eventually underwent successful surgery, and has since dedicated himself to a new calling — raising awareness for early detection and patient care.
“I was fortunate in that my cancer was diagnosed very early, so I had all the treatment options available to me at the time,” he says. “I've found myself surprisingly becoming a rather vocal advocate for not only prostate cancer patients, but cancer patients in general.”